An Instructive Story

At the recent Sampler Gazebo, I saw a Maker's Mark that, in my reverie induced by some singular table offerings, struck me as possibly a rare older bottle of Maker's. I asked people around me what it was and someone, Mike I think or Art, said it was an 86 Makers. Great I thought, a rare chance to taste Makers when it was "supposedly" better than the current one. I took a swig and thought wow, that's a full rich taste with some of that older whiskey they must have used then. I started to emit a pronunciamento how the stuff from decades back is so often higher grade and such a pity it isn't like that now and bla bla. Then Mike said, "Gary, it's 86 proof, the 43% one that came and went". "[Gulp] Oh, I see, thanks guys".

Re: An Instructive Story

There is a relatively famous psych experiment that pretty much systematically proves what you are saying. (I wish I could remember the name / reference.) In short, experimenters had professional wine tasters taste value red wine and told them it was value red wine, then had them taste THE SAME WINE after telling them that was more expensive / higher status. They overwhelmingly described THE SAME WINE as much worse in first tasting.

Re: An Instructive Story

Coke and Pepsi. Pepsi destroys Coke in blind tests, and has for decades. Coke has an untouchable market lead. Go figure.

FWIW I don't drink soda anymore, but I always preferred Coke.

Not to be that contrary guy, but I have actually heard that further blind testing complicates this result. To summarize what I have heard: Basically, Pepsi is sweeter, so people who have only one mouthful blind almost always like it better. But when people blind drink an entire can's worth, preferences tend to swing back in Coke's direction.

Re: An Instructive Story

Originally Posted by CoMobourbon

Not to be that contrary guy, but I have actually heard that further blind testing complicates this result. To summarize what I have heard: Basically, Pepsi is sweeter, so people who have only one mouthful blind almost always like it better. But when people blind drink an entire can's worth, preferences tend to swing back in Coke's direction.

But yeah, the big point is obviously taken.

Thats fascinating. We performed this experiment in my (grade-school) class and I was on team Pepsi. I'm curious if it was a combination of my immature palate with a sweeter beverage. Luckily, the issue is moot for me now since I no longer bother with soda.

Really, I tend to find lone random tastings of whiskey inconclusive. My naive palate can't very well identify characteristics, especially when influenced by unblind knowledge. I need to have a dedicated, solitary tasting session, preferably a comparative of many, in order to create an objective idea of the whiskey.